Power Outages Intensify as Shortfall Exceeds 4,000MW

The current electricity generation in Pakistan is 12,900 MW, but the demand is17,000 MW, according to reports on Monday.
People across the country are facing the worst ever electricity load shedding this summer with power shortfall exceeding 4,000MW and the duration of load shedding rising to 18 hours a day in most areas.

The citizens of rural areas are facing more than 20 hours of load shedding while in urban areas, load shedding is being carried out for 18 hours. Though the country is facing the worst energy crisis, experts see respite from load shedding in near future following a commitment by the new government to resolve the issue on priority basis.

According to an official report, the country’s overall power requirement has crossed 15,500MW during the last couple of weeks. Water experts including Pakistan Muttahida Mahaz president, Ayub Mayo, Sultan Ali of Pakistan Water Council and Water Front’s Tariq Ali said generating power overnight was a tedious job and the government would have to develop small water reservoirs besides investing in mini-dams that might fulfill country’s electricity requirements by 40 to 50 percent.

They pointed out that India was constructing dams on the Indus River with capacity of 2,060MW which after completion would push Pakistan to the brink of water disaster and the availability of water would plunge from the current 1,200 cubic metres per capita to 800 cubic metres by 2020.